Duffys Cut - Philadelphia

[Kiros32]

Duffy's Cut - Philadelphia

I watched a show last night on the Smithsonian Channel (great channel) about 57 Irish laborers that were hired to build a 1-mile stretch of railroad in 1832. It was in the Philadelphia area and is now known as Duffy's Cut, after the contractor that hired the men. All 57 laborers died within two months I think, of cholera, and were buried in an unmarked grave near where they were working. The entire story was recorded, but then concealed from the public.

The two men that found the story hired a team to search the area for the grave, I guess to give these guys "a voice" persay since this was a pretty sad story, and they are said to still haunt the area. After locating several artifacts with metal detectors and sifting, they used geo-imaging to look for the gravesite. They never found it. This show was produced in 2004.

Have any of you Philly guys heard the story or have any updates? Just curious.

 

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[jeff of pa]

Re: Duffy's Cut - Philadelphia

located in Malvern, Pennsylvania, USA, at the intersection of King Road and Sugartown Road.


Official Website http://www.duffyscutproject.com/

 

[Gypsy Heart]

Re: Duffy's Cut - Philadelphia

Official record of the deaths at Duffy’s Cut, remained locked in the vaults of the Pennsylvania Railroad (PRR) until Joseph Tripican, a secretary to a former PRR president removed them after the company’s bankruptcy in 1970. In the 1990s, one of Tripican’s grandsons, Frank Watson discovered the papers in a file, and began with fellow historians William Watson and John Ahtes to research the history. The state historical marker, dedicated in 2004, memorializes the fifty-seven Irish workers who died at Duffy’s Cut in August of 1832, and the labors and sacrifices of the immigrants who helped build the railroads in Pennsylvania.

Hired on the docks in Philadelphia by Phillip Duffy, a Willistown railroad contractor working for the Philadelphia and Columbia Railroad, these Irishmen were taken to two small hills near the present-day town of Malvern, to fill in a ravine for a track bed. Duffy crowded his work crew into a single hastily built shanty. Largely shunned by the local populace – anti-Irish Catholic riots had broken out in Philadelphia just the year before –the newcomers began their grueling labor in June.


That summer, an outbreak of cholera swept through the Delaware Valley, killing at least 900 people and inciting great anxiety. At the beginning of August, the disease made its deadly appearance in the ravine. As they watched their fellow workers fall ill and then die, some of the Irish men hurried to nearby homes for assistance. But anti-Catholic and anti-immigrant prejudice was so prevalent that doors were barred, and help denied. Only the contractor’s blacksmith risked exposure in a futile attempt to save lives. He also led several Sisters of Charity from Philadelphia to the site, but to no avail. The task of burying the Irish workers, who all died from cholera that August, fell upon the blacksmith. He buried them all in a shallow ditch on the railroad’s right of way without ceremony or funeral. Rejected by the local residents, the nuns walked back to Philadelphia without food or water in the late summer heat.


Although incidents of mass death such as this one at Duffy’s Cut were uncommon, immigrant workers on Pennsylvania’s railroads suffered from injury and death at a high rate, for they were often viewed by the owners and managers of railroad and coal mining corporations as expendable components, and by “native" Americans as unwholesome and even dangerous outsiders. Often crowded into company housing in out-of-the-way locations, foreign-born mine and rail workers struggled for survival in a frequently hostile environment.
http://www.explorepahistory.com/hmarker.php?markerId=671

 

[Kiros32]

Re: Duffy's Cut - Philadelphia

Thanks for the link Jeff. It seems they may have located the burial site, but I see no updates as to whether it was confirmed. Very sad story though...these guys certainly need some closer.

 

[Jimmy(PA)]

Re: Duffy's Cut - Philadelphia

I heard something about it before. They said they were burried in a shallow grave, the one guy and 7 nuns had to bury all of them. I'd be afraid of finding bones detecting that area. I just read they made the nuns walk back to there convent which was in Kensington with no food, water, or rides which is a heck of a hike especially on foot. Those immigrants back then sure worked hard.